Ann Morris, 51, ‘perfect public servant’

Whatever the problem — Social Security benefits, health care, unemployment — Ann Morris stood ready to assist anyone who contacted the office of then-Congressman Wyche Fowler.

For five years in the late 1970s, the Atlanta native worked as a staff assistant in the congressman’s office in Washington. Mr. Fowler, who said he tries to keep in touch with former staff members, last spoke to Morris a couple of years ago. She was, he said, the “perfect public servant.”

Enlarge this image

Family photo

Ann Morris worked on the 1996 and 2002 Olympics, and was the vice president of community affairs for Wachovia Bank.

“Let me tell you, she loved people and liked to try to help them with the kinds of things people go to congressional offices and congressional staff for help with,” Mr. Fowler said. “She was the kind of public servant you’d want to have.”

Ann Maria Morris, 51, of Atlanta died of bladder cancer Sept. 14 at her home. A memorial service will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Cator Woolford Gardens at the Frazer Center in Atlanta. Wages & Sons Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Ms. Morris and her sister recently took a trip to Washington to visit old haunts and tour the office where she once worked. When the University of Georgia grad worked there, she was a twenty-something with budding views on political and social issues.

“She was an environmentalist before it became a cool thing,” said her sister, Gail Morris Cooke of Roswell. “She just loved the energy of D.C. and the time she spent there were very formative years for her. Those were some great years she had in Washington.”

After her stint in Washington, Ms. Morris returned to Atlanta to work for the United Way. She eventually became vice president of community affairs for Wachovia Bank, and was heavily involved in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

She served as director of the volunteer staff in Centennial Olympic Park, the so-called town square of the event.

Mrs. Cooke lived in Memphis when the Olympics were held and worried about her sister in the hours after the July 27, 1996, park bombing. Later she learned Ms. Morris had not been close to where the bomb discharged, but was within the vicinity of the park.

“She called me the next day just to let me know she was OK,” Mrs. Cooke said. Ms. Morris’ involvement with the Olympics didn’t end with Atlanta’s turn as host city.

She managed the Olympic Torch Relay for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Other endeavors include overseeing the Atlanta Track Club’s volunteer efforts to host the Peachtree Road Race so soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan could participate simultaneously as the event took place in Atlanta.